I feel like my writing's going to be stiff from all the ENG 318G-Technical and Professional Communication that's been getting all up in my grill lately, but here it goes...

So, since last journal, which you probably should have cried over, I've been putting a lot of thought into one tiny but very apparent aspect of the game: The reticule. You know, the target thingy in the middle of your screen in an FPS that sometimes changes depending on the weapon?
It's one of those things that is really easy to work on in your spare time, like during class. See, my game development workflow is usually sandwiched between everything else, so I've developed a surefire technique always get something done, which I call the 2 D's: Doodling and Daydreaming. I usually have a topic in my mind that I can call up in case I have down time but can't do real work, like when that old lady in my English class asks a retarded question or starts telling stories about her kids no one cares about. For example, this week I started off with vague ideas for user interface and HUD, got stuck on reticules, and then came up with the ideas you see in this journal and a ton of sketches in the margins of my notes. Here's what I got:


Why Reticules?
Reticules are important because:
1) They add to the 'feel' of the different weapons
2) They are an obvious reminder for which weapon is selected
3) They help you aim good, and shoot stuff good, too


The things behind the airplane will move in and out to indicate speed, the bar above the plane is a notional health bar. Note what changes and what doesn't on the reticules


Challenges

Usability:
The issue is that the requirements in 2D are kind of conflicting- you want a decent guideline, but you don't want to block the view of the bullets and stuff too much, which is a problem because the reticule is drawn on top of pretty much everything. In the game, we're planning on a sort of compromise approach. There will be a small indicator a fair distance away that will always be there, with the space between that and the airplane taken up by weapon-specific reticules that will change depending on your secondary weapon.

style:
They are gonna be functional, but you want them to be not only sweet-looking, but appropriate to the weapon. The scatterpack missiles, the Angels 22 equivalent to a shotgun, should have a reticule that reflects the inaccuracy of the thing. By the same token, the Mulciber ridiculous-caliber gunpod (Sniper Rifle) should have a reticule that indicates to you that it's shoots really far and really straight. Also, really fuckin' cool weapons (technical term) should have a similarly awesome-looking reticules.

Color: Color is going to be a challenge, because although standard airplane HUD-green would seem like a natural choice, in my tests so far it doesn't have great contrast with the sky colors we'll likely be dealing with. I threw on a shadow, but we'll probably have to see what it looks like in-game in order to make many decisions.


MSPAINT
So if you've been reading this journal since time immemorial, you might know that I work in 2 digital mediums: MS Paint and Adobe Photoshop. Paint has always been my old standby, since it's so low level is sort of forces you keep a specific style (pixel-y) and you can do it anywhere, like work. Anyway, it turns out they finally changed Paint significantly for Windows 7, which is alright since it adds a lot of functionality- like it sort of has objects now, like you can reshape lines, plus it adds the never-before-dreamt-of-in-Paint feature of an anti-aliased 'Pen' tool.

Tragically/Hilariously, in updating it, they removed some of the functionality that made it a halfway-decent pixel-art program.Switching colors is needlessly complicated, plus where the hell are my keyboard shortcuts? I didn't spend
years becoming an MS Paint machine just have my Ctrl-R-down arrow-Enter become useless (that a horizontal flip, by the way).

Oh well, maybe I'll finally start using a real pixel-art program...

Bonus Material
Sir Sapo sent me a couple of screens with the Helicopter in action tonight. Sometimes it's like we're going to have a real game someday...


Pondering the rules of engagement with an enemy gunship...


Questions not asked; shot first.

Don't forget to check out the return of our fellow Journal-lander of old and good friend, Hopedagger!

As always, If you have any questions, criticisms, well-deserved praise (maybe), feel free to comment!